Serpents and Sacrifices

Excerpt
The law has been given. God has established in very clear terms what He expects from His chosen people. These 613 laws govern how Israel is supposed to behave toward God, toward one another, and even toward animals and other creation. God gives these laws and expects Israel to follow them, yet God knows that they will fail regularly, so He includes laws for that, or more precisely, He formalizes the sacrifice system. This is a way that the Israelites can show that they understand they have failed to obey the law (sinned) and express remorse, as well as have their sins covered through the death of an innocent animal. As we saw in the last lesson, this system anticipated something greater, something that would be able to completely repair the broken relationship with God. Somehow, the promised rescuer would repair this brokenness once and for all. Now the people will be led around the wilderness as God prepares and tests His people, and reveals the condition of their hearts.